Gaming & Culture —

A new protagonist

Tired of the same old orcs, elves, space marines, undead, and bosomy female …

Video games need a new protagonist. No more tough guys with inhumanly large guns and no more women who can kick the crap out of Bruce, Jet, and Chuck all at the same time. No amnesiacs, wizards, elves or half-undead crybabies. And that goes for enemies, too. If I never, EVER, see another orc for as long as I live, it will be too soon. Sure, Half-Life?s Mr. Freeman is supposed to be a scientist, but he kicked ass like a space marine from the word go. Let?s hear some new ideas, like Homeless Joe who frees Detroit?s automakers from a horde of crack heads who are stealing carburetors to fashion uber-bongs that will destroy the world? (And no orcs!)

Food Force

...the UN has released a free game that teaches kids (and others) about world hunger and the trials and tribulations or combating it.

At first, I wondered if this were really Game.Ars material, but what better to follow up my mini-rant on new protagonists than this? Besides, many Game.Ars readers are family folks with kids who might learn something valuable here. If you want to know more about Food Force, click here. (Not sure if it was just me, but the load time can be a bit long ? and I have a cable connection).

Is Doom doomed?

The movie interpretation of Doom has been pushed back to the Fall season. October 21 is the new release date. This can be the death knell for a movie. What I mean is that Hollywood reserves late-August through October for what are known as ?soft? properties. Late October normally sees campy horror releases. If someone in Hollywood sees Doom as falling into that category, then we aren?t going to get a sci-fi, action thriller. No, we?ll get a cheese-filled, gore-fueled romp.

In other words, I hope people aren?t looking at the dailies for Doom and saying; ?Shove this into our Fall schedule, it isn?t up to snuff with summer competition?. We?ll see.

Calling all Elves!

Sign ups for Dungeons and Dragons Online began this week. With all the online fantasy competition from EQ2 and Wow, Turbine Entertainment either has to have one helluva game up its sleeve, or the D&D license alone better be enough to entice a lot of players.

We can be certain that the launch of D&D Online will be massive, but there are so many D&D games out there, including NWN and Dragonshard (coming soon) that one has to wonder if the gleaming allure of a D&D world is enough to carry the game to long-term success. I hope so.

A new civilization

Galactic Civilizations, released in 2001, has received accolades from critics and its fan-base, but it has yet to be put on the pedestal it deserves. I mean, even with its solid sales numbers, when you ask many gamers about Galactic Civilizations, they look at you like you?re talking about a Sci-Fi Channel mini series. It?s one of the best 4X games ever to plant its feet on my hard drive, and I still play it to this day.

With GA2 coming soon, I was happy to read a recent hands-on preview at GameSpy that had this to say:

Galactic Civilizations II is running on a full 3D engine. The engine not only looks great, it also proves to be a big boost to gameplay.

If you?re a fan of Sid Meier?s Civilization and Alpha Centauri but haven?t played Galactic Civs yet, it?s about time, my friend. Check out the entire preview here.

First look at Madden 2006

Baseball season is barely underway, which means it?s time for football! Well, at least over at IGN it is. They got a first-look at the next iteration of Madden NFL from EA Sports.

The next edition of Madden will take the franchise into the era of exclusivity as the only officially licensed NFL videogame.

Jagged Alliance 3D

The long wait for details on a new Jagged Alliance have surfaced this week. Worthplaying.com has posted screenshots and details about the upcoming Jagged Alliance 3D. Previous news about this game said it would be a remake of Jagged Alliance 2, but with a 3D engine. From what I?ve read, that is far from the truth.

Game action takes place in the western coast of Africa. There is arms race intensification and exacerbation of a situation in the region. One of local countries desires to be a member of a nuclear club.

Get your Yu-Gi-Oh on!

Yu-Gi-Oh!Online launched internationally this week. This is not your grandfather?s MMORPG, but is instead an anime-inspired card game for doing battle in a duel-style combat. The card game has been faithfully reproduced for Online dueling where players can fight, talk about the game and even trade cards.